Fabrication of superhydrophobic copper meshes via simply soaking for oil/water separation

A superhydrophobic copper mesh was prepared by a quick and straightforward two-step soaking operation to form the micro-nano coralline-like rough structure for oil/water separation. The modified copper mesh was characterized by SEM, EDS, FTIR, XRD, XPS, and WCAs. The obtained superhydrophobic copper mesh (WCA = 158.7°) showed excellent mechanical and chemical stability. The modified copper mesh also showed good self-cleaning ability and antifouling performance. The modified copper mesh showed excellent oil/water separation performance as reflected from its separation efficiency, separation flux, and reusability for colza oil, diesel oil, ethyl acetate, chloroform, and hexane oil/water mixtures with above 95% separation efficiency after 20 cycles of reuse. Due to low cost, time-saving, easy-to-prepare, and excellent separation performance, the superhydrophobic copper mesh would have a broad application prospect in oil/water separation.